Get Even looks to mess with your reality on almost inception levels! But can the game deliver the goods and be immersive?
Get Even begins with you waking up in an abandoned asylum as Cole Black. His last memory? The attempted rescue of a teenage girl with a bomb strapped to her chest. With a strange technology fused to his head which can replay human memory and held captive by the mysterious Red, Black explores the depth of his mind to uncover the truth of what happened, but along the way he gets a lot more than what he bargained for.
The game’s plot has you question what’s real or not as you work through Black’s memory to find out the truth of what happened. Set as a thriller, you uncover the story by exploring the interactive environment and collecting evidence which helps piece together the events that went down.
I have to say the pacing has been done excellently. There was no part I felt that could have been shortened or extended as I feel it all came together in a cohesive manner and once it was all said and done, paid off for your patience and effort.
The entire game takes place in first person and at all times you are equipped with a smart phone that handles the basic functions such as a map to know where you are going. When you do come across a possible clue, a green light appears on the phone and you can use the scanner function to focus on that particular area; also available is a heat detector and blue light.
As you could have probably guessed, the smart phone comes in pretty handy especially when you are going up against potential enemies. The map will show their location and field of sight and for some puzzles the blue light comes in quite important e.g. when following a trail.
There is no hand to hand combat, instead shooting comes into play and while this doesn’t necessarily feel authentic it gets the job done. One weapon the game introduces is the Corner Gun and my goodness is it the most overpowered gun in the world.
As it name implies, it allows you to literally shoot around corners by docking your smartphone to it and having the gun aim to the left or right. You can even shoot over cover by aiming towards the ceiling and having the gun change its viewpoint over the cover. I really like the creativity with this one and had a lot of fun picking off enemies.
The game is once again all about rediscovering these memories and this is done via pictures you find around the asylum. This loads up a specific event that you can play through and although your guide mentions not to mess with the memory too much, I’ve yet to see any consequences for doing so. At one point in the game you can use the phone to scan for any abnormalities and while this can change things, it mostly comes handy when you need a place to hide.
This is just one of the many puzzles that you will encounter, however unfortunately I didn’t come across any that really made me rack my brains. It felt like a missed opportunity for a game that looks to constantly get in the player’s way and mess with their interpretation of reality.
Evidence you’ve collected can be found in the evidence locker which is entered in a similar way to the memories. Here you can go over what has been found so far for each case and also unlock new weapons depending on how well you’ve done.
Get Even has a phenomenal soundtrack that brilliantly heightens the tension to the point that at some moments I thought I was playing a horror game. Even when being chased by enemies the soundtrack changes to an almost rhythmic breathing of Cole Black, further bringing you in to the moment.
Get Even’s strongest point is its story and pacing as it seemingly kept me in the dark and threw me off guard at its final pay off. Some parts of the game can seem to drag on but as a total package it made me want to play until the end.
The soundtrack has been done beautifully and it should stand as an example for many other titles that look to achieve a similar vision.
